HONOLULU, Hawai`i--A furious second half rally came up just a little bit short as the University of Hawai`i Hilo men's soccer team dropped their Pacific West Conference opener to Chaminade, 4-2 at St. Louis Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Vulcans are now 1-4 on the year (0-1 PacWest), while Chaminade picked up their first victory of the year to move to 1-2 on the year and to 1-1 in conference play.

In the early going, the match looked to be a Silversword blowout. Chaminade scored three times in the first 15 minutes to drop the Vulcans into a huge hole. The scoring barrage began just 4:45 into the match when Jared Rivera pushed a shot past a charging UHH keeper Nick Williams to make it 1-0. At the 14-minute mark, Jaewon Huh took a pass form Davin Garma and fired it into the goal give the Silverswords a 2-0 lead, and just 55 seconds later Micah Mokulehua made it a three-goal margin with a header into the home net.

The teams played even the rest of the first half, with the Silverswords taking a 3-0 lead into intermission.

Defensive ruled for the first 30 minutes of the second half, further securing what looked to be a an easy Chaminade victory. But the momentum shifted in the 77th minute when UH HIlo's Bryan Gonzalez fired a rocket from 35 yards over the head of CUH goalkeeper Michael Stafford. That made the count 3-1, and things got even more interesting three and a half minutes later when a foul sent UHH's Matt Wilkinson to the box for a penalty kick, which he converted for his third goal of the season. The score was now 3-2.

But before the Vulcans could get their hopes up any further, the Silverswords burst their bubble when Reece Hambly scored from 15-yards out, middle of the field, at 86:22. The Vulcans couldn't get close enough for a shot the rest of the way and Chaminade celebrated the win. 

The home team had 17 shots on the day, seven of them on goal. The Vulcans had eight shots, five of them on goal. The teams had 18 fouls each, and UH Hilo had six corner kicks to CUH's four.

Head coach Paul Regrutto's team will now return to the Big Island for their first home match of the year, hosting Azusa Pacific on Tuesday at Kamehameha School in Keaau. Start time is 4:30 p.m.